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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
Houseworks: Why attic frost happens 
The process is simple. Warm indoor air contains more water vapour than cold air can hold. When warm, moist household air leaks upward into a cold attic, it cools. If it cools enough some of the water vapour condenses into liquid water. When the roof framing and sheathing are below freezing, that moisture freezes instead, gradually building a coating of frost. 

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From Green Screen to Gray Box: AI...
On screen, a woman runs toward a cliff and peers anxiously over the edge, teetering as she looks down at a perilous mountain dotted with boulders, her hair flying in the wind. She’s not, though. I can see her from where I’m standing in the middle of a Disney sound stage in Los Angeles. She’s standing in a “gray box,” a small, walled-off space on the studio floor, neutral-colored walls speckled with small cross marks for positioning. She’s next...

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Want Apple Intelligence for Your Home Security...
Aqara is one of the few camera brands that works well with Apple products. In the past months Apple has unveiled a host of new Apple Intelligence and Siri AI features, with more on the way. And some features immediately caught my attention because they can enable security cameras on Apple devices in all-new ways. The most interesting option even adds video descriptions, essentially using AI to “read” your security clips and give you texts about what’s happening in...

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New centre to focus on innovative cell...
“This grant will do even more. It will be interdisciplinary work, where we have all these scientists, but also engineers, parents, engineers, policy workers and regulators working together to bring these therapies to patients faster. And, more importantly, have them approved, affordable, and accessible so that no child is left behind,” he said.

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Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday,...
Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? The diverse mix of answers includes everything from pizza toppings to Supreme Court justices. Read on for all the answers. The Mini Crossword is a nice break from tougher puzzles and takes only a fraction of the time needed to solve the vaunted full-size New York Times Crossword. Mini across clues and answers 1A clue: Animal whose prominent feature makes it an unofficial mascot of WednesdayAnswer: CAMEL  6A clue: Black pizza toppingAnswer:...

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Reddit’s New AI-Powered Reviews Are Already Controversial
Reddit announced on Tuesday that it’s testing Reviews, an AI-powered shopping feature that aggregates user comments into product summaries, commerce links, and pros-and-cons breakdowns. In a blog post, the company said it wants to organically use discussions on the platform, from conversations about skin care treatments or coffee to headphones, to help people “understand what a product is really like and feel confident deciding whether it’s right for them.” The Reviews feature promises to make product research easier on...

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Warhammer Survivors Isn’t Much More Than a...
When I first heard that developers Auroch Digital and Vampire Survivors creator Luca “Poncle” Galante were working together on Warhammer Survivors, I was thrilled. A studio of Warhammer lore fiends collaborating with a solo dev who birthed a genre seemed like a recipe for success.  But having now played through most of the game’s sci-fi battles and a smattering of fantasy incursions, I think your enjoyment of this game probably hinges entirely on how many modern bullet heaven games...

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NASA Is Accepting Astronaut Applications for the...
This type of job posting happens once in a blue moon.  If you’ve always dreamed of becoming an astronaut, NASA just made space for those who meet its qualifications. On Saturday, the agency announced that it’s seeking the next class of astronauts who will journey to the moon, build the planned 2032 Moon Base and help create the systems that will enable the first Mars mission.  What it takes to be an astronaut If you want to journey into...

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Pixel 11 Pro’s HiLight Will Now Light...
Google’s HiLight LED is starting to light up for more than just phone calls and Gemini on the Pixel 11 Pro, Pro XL and Pro Fold. The multicolored light will now glow when your preferred contacts text you in Google Messages, as part of a new Pixel Drop update announced on Tuesday. I was pretty harsh about HiLight when it debuted on Google’s higher-cost phones as a “Pro” feature. While it hearkens back to the days of the BlackBerry...

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Google Expands Gemini 4 Carbon Availability
Two weeks after announcing Gemini 4 Carbon for cybersecurity professionals, Google is expanding access to its latest frontier AI model to even more people. It’s now available to developers, enterprises, scientists and consumers.  As with all new AI models, there are improvements across the board, but Gemini 4 Carbon particularly excels in areas such as knowledge work, agentic coding, science, mathematics and cybersecurity. Google says Carbon outperforms its Argon AI model and competitor models from OpenAI and Anthropic in...

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Half of New Games on Steam Are...
Steam, the digital marketplace for PC games from game studio Valve, has hit a major milestone, sparking pushback from parts of the gaming community: Approximately 50% of new Steam games in October were made with the help of AI.  This underscores a growing trend in gaming, where more games are made with some form of AI assistance — specifically, generative AI, which developers have used to generate code, art assets, voice lines and more. Developers are adopting the technology...

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Google Introduces 3 More Top-Level Domain Names,...
We’re trained to type .com almost on autopilot, but more top-level domains are coming. You’ll soon see websites ending in .eat, .fly and .here. It’s a new way for restaurants, travel agencies and other service providers to customize their online presence. Google successfully filed these domain types with ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, back in 2012, but only released the new registry options to the public on Tuesday. There’s always a concern that someone will...

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The Righteous EV Owners Who Won’t Let...
On an October evening in 2024, a gardener named Svein Hodne was driving home from vacation on a wind-buffeted coastal road in southwest Norway when his electric car began behaving strangely. Yellow and red warnings lit up its display. An alarm went off. The car lost power. Hodne barely managed to turn off the road and into a bus stop, right next to a graveyard and a church, before the car came to a stop. He was alone. His...

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